LBN 328 (IC 5068) in Dynamic SHO

A "quick" project between the last couple of new moons. LBN 328 (IC 5068) seems to be an often ignored region, located right "under" the North America and Pelican nebulae. This project was a bit over 38 hours of SHO narrowband combined in a "dynamic" palette that blends the traditional SHO color scheme with a more complex version of combining narrowband data.

 

- Location: Remote Observatory (Bortle 1, SQM 21.99) near Fort Davis, TX

- Total Exposure Time: 38.92 Hours

 

Equipment:

- Scope: Esprit 100ED w/ 1x Flattener

- Imaging Camera: QHY 268M

- Filters: Chroma 5nm Ha/3nm Oiii/3nm Sii (36mm)

- Mount: Astro Physics Mach1GTO

- Guidescope: SVBony 50mm Guidescope

- Guide camera: ASI 120mm mini

- Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler WR35

- Accessories: Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2, QHY Polemaster, Optec Alnitak Flip Flat

 

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Software:

- N.I.N.A for image acquisition, platesolving, and framing

- PHD2 for guiding

- PixInsight for processing

 

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Acquisition:

- Ha: 87 x 5m

- Oiii: 185 x 5m

- Sii: 195 x 5m

- All images at Gain 56, Offset 25 (Readout mode 1) and -5C sensor temperature

- 20 flats per filter

- Master Dark & Bias from Library

- Nights: 5/13-5/15, 5/18, 5/19, 6/7, 6/11-6/13, 6/17/22

 

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Processing:

 

- BatchPreprocessing for calibration

- StarAlignment and ImageIntegration of all masters

 

Ha Processing:

- DynamicCrop

- DynamicBackgrounExtraction

- NoiseXterminator

- StarNetv2 to remove stars

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch

- HistogramTransformation x 2 for further stretch

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

 

Oiii/Sii Processing (apply to each master):

- DynamicCrop

- DynamicBackgroundExtraction

- NoiseXterminator

- StarAlignment to Ha master

- Duplicate and make one version starless via Starnet2

- GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch for initial stretch

- HistogramTransformation x2 for further stretch

 

Combine into color:

- PixelMath x2 on starless masters - One SHO copy, one Foraxx combination copy

- 60-40 blend of Foraxx and SHO

- CurvesTransformation for hue shift, 'c' curve adjustment, and saturation boost

- Further CurvesTransformation to balance color

- ColorSaturation for selective saturation

 

Create Luminance Layer:

- PixelMath 80-20 blend of Ha and Sii starless

- CurvesTransformation for contrast

- LocalHistogramEqualization for details

- UnsharpMask for sharpness

 

Combine Lum and Color and add stars:

- LRGBCombination with saturation at 0.4

- STF on all masters with stars

- Combine star masters via ChannelCombination (OSH)

- Starnet to create starmask

- CurvesTransformation and SCNR on starmask to reduce green

- MorphologicalTransformation to reduce star size on starmask

- PixelMath to combine stars with color image

- DynamicCrop to crop edges

- ImageSolver to platesolve and annotate

- Save and Export

 

Done